Emma's Birth Story

Holding Emma after her first bath. 

Let me just start by saying Emma's birth was waaaaaaaaay different than my experience with Luke, but thankfully the second time around you know what to expect, what the signs are leading up to labor, what a contraction feels like, and ultimately when it's time to go to the hospital.

About a week before Emma's birth, I started having lots of false labor contractions.  They would come in and out, get closer together then go away, and as the week progressed they started getting slightly more intense going from me barley noticing when my stomach was tightening to having to breathe through the longer more intense contractions that came on later in the week.  B's mom had come down the weekend before my due date to be on call to watch Luke had I gone into labor and she stayed a few extra nights as I kept thinking baby Emma was going to be making her arrival due to all the activity... but Emma wasn't ready.

My mom flew in the following Friday and by Friday night, the contractions were coming consistently, just not withing the 5-7 minutes that my doctor told me to wait for before coming to the hospital.  I tried to go to bed to get some rest, but by 2:30 am on Saturday morning, the contractions started coming every 5 minutes and we headed to the hospital.  Once in the labor and delivery triage unit, the nurse told me I was only 2 cm dilated and my contractions started to slow down, but they kept me there for 3 hours to monitor Emma's heart rate as it had a few dips during the time they had me hooked up to the monitor.  The doctor came back in to check on us around 5:30 am and told me I hadn't dilated any further and it was probably best to go home and wait vs stay in the hospital, so home we went.  

I continued to have contractions throughout the day getting longer and more intense, and by early evening they were getting so intense I was having a hard time standing or breathing though them.   I was determined to wait as long as I could before going back to the hospital as I didn't want to be sent home again and I am generally not a fan of hospitals in the first place.   The contractions were still coming at all odd intervals, sometimes 3-4 minutes a part then 8-9 minutes, so I decided to take a hot shower to help with the back pain I was experiencing with each contraction.  After I got out of the shower, my contractions were coming every 5 minutes again and I decided it was time to go to the hospital.  

We got to the hospital around 8:15 pm Saturday night and by the time we were placed into the triage unit the second time around, the contractions were coming every 3 minutes and I was in tears from the back pain.  The doctor came in and I was only 3 cm dilated, but my contractions were so close that they admitted me to my own labor and delivery room within 10 minutes.  By this point I was begging for an epidural, especially after finding out I was only 3 cm dilated and thinking I had a long way to go... or so I thought.  They came in shortly after I got to my room and started administering the epidural and by this point I was screaming from the back pain.  I kept telling the nurse I felt like I had to push and she told me to wait, so I waited what felt like an eternity but was only 15 minutes and as soon as they finished administering the epidural they checked me again and I had dilated to 10 cm in just 15 minutes.  The epidural had yet to actually kick in, but I started pushing anyway just a my mom walked through the door and 10 minutes later I was holding my baby girl.  Emma was born at 9:30 pm weighing 6 lbs 13 oz and measuring 20" long.

It all happened so fast and we didn't even have time to call anyone to tell them I was in labor until after Emma was born.  My sister and B's parents came by that night to meet Emma and then we went to our recovery room around midnight and were released from the hospital the following night.

Admiring our baby girl. 

Emma right after her first bath.